The Texts from Voices of a People’s History of the United States

Name: Instructor: Course: Date: Critical Analysis about The Texts from Voices of a People’s History of the United States Introduction Howard Zinn is a political scientist and an American historian. He is the author of a non-fiction book, A People's History of the United States that was published in the year 19080. In the book, Zinn presents a different side of American history that majorly shows how the public has been manipulated and violated. He explains how the system was compromised to favor the elite rulers of the different political parties established in the United States. The book has been recognized throughout the world. In 1980, the book was number two in the National Book Award. Throughout the years, scholars and fellow authors have revised the book, and the most recent edition has covered historical events up to 2005. During an interview, Zinn said that the quiet revolution was his ultimate goal for writing the book. The peaceful revolution, according to Zinn, served as an inspiration to him. In the book, Zinn has explained the revolutions further by saying that it is different from the one people know. This one does not involve the seizing of power. Instead, it is all about people taking power within the institutions in different areas, like the workers taking control of their places of work. As expected, the book has received both praises and criticisms from various scholars, politicians, and historians across the globe. The essay presents a critical analysis of the texts from the voices of a People’s History of the United States by focusing on chapter two about the first slaves and chapter 23 which challenges Bill Clinton. Critical Analysis The first chapter that I would critically analyze is chapter two that talks about the first slaves. Slavery is one of the inhumane and unfair human acts where people were discriminated based on their complexion, and they were used to provide illegal human labor. The chapter begins by talking about the way the elites came up with strategies that would separate the two groups which were the native Americans and the black slaves. The author shows the way the Native Americans and the Black slaves undertook different tasks to reduce the chances of interaction between the slaves and native Americans. The book covered this chapter well as it also discussed the massive failure that the first acts of slavery had as they lacked a complete and clear picture of what they wanted in the future as the native's accumulated wealth that gave them a higher status quo. However, I felt that the authors did not cover what were the main factors that led to the rise of slavery acts and what were the reasons behind the inhumane nature of the people who carried out slavery acts as buying people and giving them hostile conditions to work in seemed inhumane irrespective of the differences in skin color. The chapter also expounded on the differences in social classes, which is an important social factor to discuss. The authors showed that the existence of social classes played a considerable role in increasing the differences between the rich and the poor (Zinn & Anthony 47). The rich and the ruling class seem to subject the poor in the society as in terms of social classes, the rich live in better co...